situation:The method of execution is injection. The sentence is determined by a jury. The death row is located at SCI Greene (Waynesburg) or SCI Graterford (Women: Muncy). As for the clemency process, the Governor has authority to grant clemency with advice of Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Scott Blystone (61, White), whose case produced a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1990 upholding the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's death-penalty statute, was resentenced to life without parole after prosecutors decided not to pursue the death penalty. Blystone was also sentenced Tuesday to an additional 10 to 20 years on a robbery conviction. Blystone was originally sentenced to death in the 1983 murder of 24-year-old Dalton Smithburger. Fayette County prosecutors said he picked up the victim, demanded money for gas, then robbed him of $13 and shot him six times in the back of the head. A federal district court judge had overturned his death sentence on March 31, 2005 (see) saying the defense should have called mental health specialists who might have persuaded jurors to sentence him to life. The Commonwealth's appeal of that ruling had been denied on December 22, 2011 (see).

(Source: usnews.com, AP, 27/02/2018)

10 January 2018 :

Jose DeJesus has been re-sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without possibility of parole. After more than a decade of litigation over his intellectual disability, Jose DeJesus has been re-sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without possibility of parole. The plea deal with the Philadelphia District Attorney's office settles three different cases in which DeJesus had been sentenced to death. DeJesus, 38, Hispanic, was sentenced to death in Philadelphia County on July 7, 1998 in the May 30, 1997 killing of a drug rival and that man's pregnant associate (Felix Vargas and Elizabeth Carrasquillo, 18), as well as the shooting of two other bystanders who survived. He then strafed the car of another drug rival with a semi-automatic rifle from a rooftop on June 20, 1997. The driver (Carlos Martinez, 26) turned out to be someone who had just bought the car from DeJesus' rival. On Aug. 24, 1997, DeJesus also shot a man on the street following an argument about a stolen gun. Three Philadelphia County juries returned death sentences for the four killings. Later, his IQ was measured in 61 point.

(Source: DPIC, 04/01/2018)

08 January 2018 :

Shawnfatee Bridges has been resentenced to a term of 23-80 years after reaching a plea deal to two counts of third-degree murder. Bridges, whom Berks County prosecutors concede was not the shooter, had won a new trial after the prior district attorney withheld multiple police records that undermined the credibility of a key prosecution witness. On Sept. 1, 2017 (see) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a federal district court decision overturning the conviction of Bridges and ordered the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to remove Bridges from death row. The court found that Reading prosecutors had unconstitutionally suppressed police records from five separate incidents that would have permitted the defense to undermine the testimony of the key prosecution witness in the case, whom prosecutors falsely argued had nothing to gain by testifying against Bridges.

(Source: DPIC, 03/01/2018)

08 January 2018 :

Pledging No Death Penalty, Larry Krasner Sworn In As Philadelphia's District Attorney. Long-time civil-rights lawyer Larry Krasner, 56, White, who pledged to end Philadelphia's use of the death penalty, took the oath of office on January 2 as district attorney in a county that only five years ago had the third largest death row (after Los Angeles and Harris County) of any county in the country. During his campaign, Krasner pledged to reduce the number of people behind bars, never use the death penalty, and seek to end use of cash bail. Krasner's inaugural address put a face on the “transformational change in criminal justice" he had called for during the election, saying it was time to begin “trading jails—and death row—for schools,” “jail cells occupied by people suffering from addiction for treatment and harm reduction,” and “division between police and the communities they serve for unity and reconciliation.” Krasner's election has drawn national attention, as social-justice activists focus on new strategies to bring about social change. The Los Angeles Times placed Krasner among "a growing list of district attorneys around the country ... who have declared that their role isn’t simply to prosecute, but to protect defendants from the excesses of the criminal justice system." The American Prospect described "the relatively quick swing from a death penalty devotee to a crusading reformer at the helm of a major American city’s DA office as both a distillation of a long-brewing shift in the politics of crime—away from the standard tough-on-crime bromides and toward a smarter approach to justice—and emblematic of a new recognition from progressives that electing allies into DA offices could be one of the most effective ways to reform the system from the inside." Since 2015, "reform" prosecutors have been elected to replace prosecutors in counties historically known for their aggressive use of the death penalty, including Harris (Houston), Texas; Duval (Jacksonville), Orange (Orlando), and Hillsborough (Tampa), Florida; Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana; and Jefferson (Birmingham), Alabama. Krasner takes the reins of an office most recently headed by Ronald Castille, Lynne Abraham, and Seth Williams. Castille served as district attorney from 1986-1991, obtaining 45 death sentences and then participating in appeals in those cases after being elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Abraham was dubbed “America's Deadliest DA,” obtaining 108 death sentences in her 19 years as district attorney between 1991 and 2009. She was replaced by Williams, who resigned after being convicted in 2017 of corruption charges. Krasner's election culminates two decades of dramatically declining death penalty use in Philadelphia. Death sentences, which averaged 9.9 per year in the 1990s, have fallen to an average of fewer than one per year this decade. The District Attorney’s Office employs about 600 people, half of them prosecutors.

Hands off Cain is an international league of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty in the world. It is a non-profit, non-violent, transnational and trans-national Partito Radicale founded in Brussels in 1993 and recognized in 2005 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a development co-operation NGO.